In lieu of actual content…

Working full-time: check. Revising my novel: check. Feeding my kids at least once a day: check. Sleeping: um… what?

Due to impending insanity, I’ll be staying off-line as much as possible for a bit. So in lieu of actual blog content today, I bring you… LINKAGE!

1. Definitely check out the Winter Blog Blast Tour this week – more than two dozen author interviews spread over ten blogs. See the full schedule over at Chasing Ray.
2. If you’re an introvert (like me), being told you need to promote yourself and your book can send you fleeing to a dark corner with your eyes scrunched shut and your fingers in your ears while you chant “I can’t heeeeeeeear you”. What, that’s not just me, is it? I didn’t think so. Check out Shrinking Violet Promotions for awesome suggestions as well as gentle reassurance that you are, indeed, normal.
3. Have you visited Jacket Whys (a blog about children’s and YA book covers)? Worth a visit, for sure!
4. Don’t you just hate it when you get that “it’s on the tip of my tongue” mental block about a word? Finally, there’s help.
5. And last, a little something for all you NaNo-ers out there:You’re welcome. Now, what are you doing reading my blog? Write, bb, write!

Peace….

20 Questions YA Author Interview: Kristina Springer

I’m happy to welcome author Kristina Springer to my blog today. Kristina’s debut novel, The Espressologist, just released on October 27 ( Farrar, Straus, and Giroux). It’s about a teenage coffee barista who discovers a talent for matchmaking customers based on their favourite coffee drinks. Grab a cuppa and check out Kristina’s responses to my 20 Questions!

1. Morning person or night owl?
   Morning.
2. Outliner or pantser?
   Outliner.
3. Rejection letters – save ‘em or toss ‘em?
   Save ‘em.
4. What’s the best thing a reader ever said to you?
   That she laughed out loud in so many spots.
5. What was the last song you had stuck in your head?
   That Beyonce one– Ring on It? It was on GLEE. So funny.
   
6. What was the last movie you watched?
   Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
   
7. What was the last book you read and loved?
   Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, by Lauren Tarshis.
8. What’s your all-time favourite story?
   Tough question! Hmm…I’m always a sucker for A Christmas Carol.
9. Any nicknames we might come across if we delved into your past?
   I had a lot of names that end in “head” from my Dad while growing up. Really, me and my three brothers had a whole slew of them: Melon Head, Pumpkin Head, Knuckle Head, Meat Head, and so on.
10. Any phobias you’re willing to admit to?
    I‘m not a fan of hospitals.
11. What’s the most unusual job you’ve ever had?
    Pool attendant at an apartment complex. I just had to be there. And check the chlorine once a day.
12. What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?
    Hmm…probably giving birth. Especially the last kid– he was ten pounds.
13. What’s one thing that really bugs you?
    Spam.
    
    Oh wait… you probably mean this:
    
14. What’s one thing you’re really proud of?
    My kids.
15. What’s the last thing you Googled?
    Addresses (I’m working on Launch party invites).
16. Where’s the farthest place from home you’ve travelled?
    France.
17. What’s your idea of a perfect vacation?
    Somewhere tropical.
    
18. What’s your favourite sports team?
    I’m so not into sports teams. I never know who is playing or what season it is.
19. What’s up next for you writing-wise?
    My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours comes out in the fall of 2010.
20. What’s your favourite piece of advice for writers?
    Be persistent.

Definitely good advice! Thanks so much for being here, Kristina. Congrats on the release of The Espressologist!

Thanks Shari!

Acquisitions, reality, and hope springing eternal

Over on Buried in the Slush Pile, The Buried Editor wrote a great post about the acquisitions process, which, according to the nifty diagram, includes eleven points at which the manuscript may be rejected and five points at which the author may be asked to do revisions. Interesting, yes, but the last sentence of the blog post is what stood out for me: “It also demonstrates just how miraculous it is that anything ever gets published.” I chuckled, and then I thought, wait! I don’t want to hear this.

Actually, I kinda already know how hard it is to get published, how high the odds are stacked against any one manuscript or author. But I don’t want the reminder. Sure it’s important for aspiring authors to be informed and to understand the process, at least to some degree, but I guess I don’t like letting reality suck the fun out of dreaming and hoping.

Then again, keeping my dreams alive is up to me. I did choose to check out the diagram – which is truly informative and interesting should you wish to have a peek – and I can also choose not to let harsh reality get me down. I can choose to work hard to improve my craft, too.

Yes, it’s tough to get published. No, not everyone who hopes to get published will. And we writers can’t necessarily do much about that: as The Buried Editor points out, there is a lot that the editor does and very little the author can do during the acquisitions process.

So what’s my job? Write the best manuscript I can, and don’t worry about the odds. Write, learn, improve, write some more. Dream a little. Oh, and don’t give up. Hope springs eternal.

On synchronicity, and fish for breakfast

At the beach this morning, I watched a heron fishing for its breakfast. I watched for quite some time, amazed at the heron’s patience. He stood motionless, waiting… waiting…. Several times ducks and gulls disturbed the water near the heron, and I imagined him wanting to shush them – “be still! you’re scaring away the fish! – but he didn’t move. Even when a breakfast-sized fish jumped about six feet behind him, he didn’t flinch a feather. Occasionally he’d arch his neck forward to peer more closely into the water, then straighten up again and wait some more. Waiting, until the perfect moment, the moment that brought the right fish into the right place, and then… strike! (I expect the fish’s perspective would be that this was entirely the wrong place at the wrong time.)

All this reminded me of two things: first, a brief chat I recently had with a writing friend about synchronicity, about things coming together at the right time. We thought that perhaps this applies to stories, and I wonder if when it’s the right time for us to tell a certain story – and not before – the pieces will fall into place. (Depending on where you’re coming from spiritually, I imagine this idea of synchronicity may be interpreted as coincidence, luck, God’s timing, one’s stars aligning, et cetera.)

For me, forcing a story that’s not ready to be told – or that I’m not ready to tell – isn’t likely to meet with good results. I’ve been stuck at a point in one particular story that I really want to tell, and I’ve berated myself over my lack of progress on it. But I decided to cut myself some slack. Maybe it’s just not the right time for me to write this. Instead, I’m outlining a new project and spending time “refilling the creative well”, nurturing my spirit so that when the story demands to be written, I’ll be ready.

The second thing the heron brought to mind this morning was how painfully slow the publishing process can be, lol. So much waiting! And as we wait to hear back on critiques, queries, revisions, contracts, edits, and so on, it can be tempting to grow impatient or discouraged and give up before our breakfast swims by (if you’ll excuse the silly analogy), or to be jealous when someone else gets a bigger fish, or gets one more quickly, or to be frustrated when those blasted ducks splash about, disturbing the water and delaying, yet again, us getting what we want.

Maybe we should keep the whole synchronicity idea in mind during all the waiting, too. Things happen at the right time, and our job is to be ready to seize the opportunities when they come. Nurture our creativity; hone our craft; polish the stories we’ve already written so when we get a request, we can send it confidently; and when the pieces come together and the time is right for a new story, thank God / the universe / your lucky stars, open a Word document, and write!

What do you think about synchronicity as it applies to writing and waiting?

20 Questions YA Author Interview: Megan Crewe

Although I’m in denial about it being October because that would mean summer is really, really over  (seriously… how is that possible?), I’m aware enough to know it’s a new month, which means *insert drum roll here* a brand new 20 Questions YA Author Interview! Yes, it’s true, and I’m delighted to welcome Megan Crewe to my blog on this, the first day of the month-which-must-not-be-named.

Megan is a fellow Canadian (*waves to Megan from across the country*). Her debut novel, Give Up The Ghost, launched September 15 from Henry Holt Books for Young Readers.

Welcome, Megan!

And now, 20 Questions….

1. Morning person or night owl?
   I think of myself as a middle-of-the-day person.  I’m at my sharpest between about 10am and 2pm. 
2. Outliner or pantser?
   Outliner all the way! If I don’t have an outline I inevitably end up writing myself into a corner I can’t get out of.
3. Rejection letters – save ‘em or toss ‘em?
   Save them. They’re part of the journey!
4. What’s the best thing a reader ever said to you?
   That they stayed up late reading my book because they found it impossible to put down.
   
5. What was the last song you had stuck in your head?
   “Suddenly I See” by K.T. Tunstall
   
6. What was the last movie you watched?
   At home: Audition (a Japanese horror movie). In the theater: District 9.
7. What was the last book you read and loved?
   Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.
8. What’s your all-time favourite story?
   It is absolutely impossible to pick just one! The one I’ve loved the longest is The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
9. Any nicknames we might come across if we delved into your past?
   My dad calls me “pumpkin” sometimes–that’s about it.
10. Any phobias you’re willing to admit to?
    Spiders. And I’m mildly claustrophobic.
11. What’s the most unusual job you’ve ever had?
    I haven’t had any really unusual jobs! I do get pretty goofy with the kids I work with, though.
12. What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?
    Spend five weeks overseas by myself (my first non-family trip). But it was also incredibly exciting.
13. What’s one thing that really bugs you?
    Having dry skin on my hands. I carry moisturizer everywhere.
14. What’s one thing you’re really proud of?
    My book!
15. What’s the last thing you Googled?
    A teacher’s name, so I could invite her to my launch party.
16. Where’s the farthest place from home you’ve travelled?
    China.
17. What’s your idea of a perfect vacation?
    Going to a far-off country I’ve never seen before and exploring its cities and landscapes.
18. What’s your favourite sports team?
    I cheer on the Canadian team during the Olympics!
19. What’s up next for you writing-wise?
    More YA novels, paranormal and fantasy.
20. What’s your favourite piece of advice for writers?
    Read. Write. Revise. (and repeat!)

Thanks so much for being here, Megan!

Thanks for the interview!

Check out the book trailer for Give Up The Ghost:

Teaser Tuesday

I’ve never posted a “teaser” before, and I’m not entirely sure I want to do so now. Still, everyone seems to be doing it…. (And yes, Mom, if my friends jumped off a bridge, I’d probably do that, too. ) So, without further ado, a teaser from my WIP, to be deleted probably very soon:

[ETA: October 5 -- too late! teaser's gone]

Hmmm…. I’ll have to find a cheerier passage next time I give in to peer pressure.

Peace.

Breathing room

(Another Thoughts-on-Writing post, cuz that’s just where my thoughts have been lately….)

One of the things I like about the ocean is how it always changes. Last week on one of my beach-walks, the ocean was quiet. No wind, so no waves – no crashing over the rocks, not even any gentle breaking against the shore (okay, the tide was out… I imagine if I’d been walking closer to the water I would’ve heard very quiet breaking of almost invisible waves against the shore… it was calm, but not immobile). Anyway… the gulls were also strangely quiet that day. Perhaps they’d already had a good feed and were snoozing somewhere while their breakfast digested. In all that absence of noise, the sound I became aware of was the scritch scritch of crabs scurrying about under the rocks.

This was a very different experience than the beach on a stormy day – wind howling past my ears, surf pounding relentlessly against the rocks. The ocean on a stormy day is all about power, and not so much about subtle scritch scritching.

It’s not just the water that changes, of course. Every day the driftwood has been rearranged and new flotsam and jetsam has been offered up. There’s always some new shell or stone or piece of sea glass to catch my eye. And have you noticed how different the air smells at low tide than at high tide? All these things – the changing sights, sounds, smells – keep the beach interesting and make me want to go back again and again (and I do!).

Yesterday I was thinking about pacing in my writing. And just like how a walk by the ocean every single day might get dull if things never changed, if it was predictable, if there was never anything new to grab my attention, so it is with fiction. If scene after scene is the same pace, the same level of intensity, I might just put the book down. If it’s all fast, I get tired; if it’s all slow, I get bored. But if it changes, if it has both quiet moments that allow me to discover hidden treasures I may have missed in more active scenes, and dramatic moments that take my breath away by their power or beauty or suspense, then I keep reading.

The variety comes naturally if you consciously use an “action/reaction” or “scene/sequel” structure when you’re writing and revising. If you’re not quite so intentional while you’re first-drafting (like me), just think of pacing as giving readers time to breathe after those scenes that make them hold their breath.

Those slower scenes shouldn’t put your readers to sleep, however. You’ve likely heard the advice to “leave out the boring parts”. Think about it – which parts do you skip when you’re reading? Probably excess backstory, or some “set-up” or exposition that somehow missed getting cut during revisions. You as the writer need to know the backstory, but the reader doesn’t always have to. If it’s not essential, leave it out.

So what can go in the slower scenes? Each scene still has to move the plot forward, but the quieter or slower-paced scenes likely contain a character reacting to what just happened, or the aftermath of the action, or maybe a bit more description sprinkled into what’s happening, or the introduction/continuation of a sub-plot. And of course, the pace can be slowed by word choice and sentence structure (thank goodness for revising!). So, conflict and tension, yes – you want the reader to keep turning pages – but vary it. Think breathing room.

(Time for a disclaimer: I don’t write, and rarely read, thrillers. Or mysteries. I expect they require higher and perhaps more relentless tension than mainstream fiction, but I don’t really know. So don’t yell at me if I’m off target here, k?)

If the ocean never changed, well… truth be told, I’d probably keep going to the beach. I just love it that much. But if the pacing in a story never changes – whether it’s constantly fast, or constantly slow – I’m probably going to close the book. To keep me reading, make me hold my breath, then give me time to breathe.

What books have you read lately that you thought had excellent pacing?

*Ocean pics both taken by my daughter.

Mixed messages and the pursuit of done-ness

(A thoughts-on-writing post… just letting you know in case you want to slip out the back now before we begin. I won’t mind.)

Say you finish your novel – not just a first draft, but a revised, re-revised, and polished-to-a-shine version. You do a happy dance and have a party, and you feel giddy (but a little nauseous from one too many root beer floats). But then you realize that even though the novel is done, it’s not DONE done. So you take off the party hat, even though it looks so cute on you, and you decide you need some FEEDBACK. *insert menacing dun-dun-dun sound effect here*

Where are you going to get decent feedback? You know better than to send the manuscript to your mom* or your best friend (unless she’s a writer or editor or awesome critiquer) because now is not the time for pats on the back. You want non-biased, honest-but-kind, truly helpful feedback. Because otherwise there’s not much point, right?

If you’re lucky, you’re already part of a good critique group, or you have a tried-and-true critique partner. If not, your mission, should you choose to accept it – and IMHO it would be totally crazy not to – is to FIND A CRITIQUE GROUP! … Go ahead. I’ll wait…. Got one? Good. Okay, give them the manuscript.

Seriously. Let go.

kthx.

Now you wait. And you notice a weird phenomenon in which time actually slows down. It’s something to do with a glitch in Einstein’s theory of relativity and the time-space continuum. Don’t worry – that always happens when you hand over a piece of your soul. You distract yourself from the waiting by immersing yourself in your next novel – cuz you’re just smart that way – until the day finally comes when you receive the definitive word on the degree of done-ness possessed by your manuscript. Or not….

Instead of gleefully acknowledging the problems your readers discovered (all minor problems, of course) and getting right to work fixing them, you cry out to the gods in frustration. Why? Because every single reader/critiquer had a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT OPINION! Talk about mixed messages. Sheesh. And now you’re thinking, what in the name of flaming hot Cheetos was the point of getting my manuscript critiqued?!

Take a breath.

Read all the comments again. See any common threads? Anything picked up by two or more people? Those are the things you want to really pay attention to. Those are the things that maybe didn’t quite arrive on the page the way they appeared in your brain. Or maybe they did, but you’d run out of coffee and your brain wasn’t working at full power the day you imagined that section, so that you ended up with a sub-plot or a character flaw or something, about which all you can say now is “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” You’ll wanna do some work on those bits….

But what of all those other random comments? The mixed messages and the opinions voiced by only a single critiquer? You kinda want to ignore them completely, don’t you, because if you don’t it’ll just mean more work. And you’re feeling ready to be done with this manuscript. But hang on a sec. Read the comments carefully. A good critiquer won’t have said “here’s how I would’ve written it”; he’ll have pointed out what doesn’t work for him, and why (in addition to mentioning what does work well). And if something doesn’t work for a reader, you have to consider it and decide if:

1. it’s simply a personal taste thing (sorry to say, but not everyone’s gonna love your writing… and that’s okay — do you love every book out there?); or
2. it’s just that reader having a less-than-stellar intellectual moment (hey, we all have those) and therefore doesn’t indicate the need to re-write the section in question; or
3. maybe, possibly, he has a point. You don’t want to change stuff for the sake of change, but if a comment resonates with you, take it to heart.

So there you have it. My lack-of-sleep influenced, long rambly post about FEEDBACK. The brilliant conclusion? Mixed messages aren’t such a terrible thing when it comes to improving your manuscript. Embrace them. Sift carefully through them. And get to work – that novel ain’t gonna finish itself!

- – - – -

(*I sometimes send stuff to my mom to read because she IS a writer, and a helpful critiquer, but she’s good with the pats-on-the-back stuff, too. I’m just lucky that way.)

Revision Tips

In case you missed any of this summer’s Fix-It Friday posts, here’s a list of the authors who contributed tips (click a name to open their tip in a new window):

1. Cynthea Liu
2. Sara Zarr
3. Dia Reeves
4. Linda Gerber
5. Lauren Baratz-Logsted
6. Bev Katz Rosenbaum
7. D.L. Garfinkle
8. Maggie Stiefvater
9. Elizabeth Scott
10. Kelly Parra

Thanks again to all these awesome authors! (I actually received more tips than there were Fridays, so there may be an encore presentation of Fix-It Friday in the future.)

Good luck with your revisions, everyone. Have fun crafting your best story possible!

Fix-It Friday

As summer winds down, I bring you the last of this round of Fix-It Friday revision tips, courtesy of Kelly Parra, author of Graffiti Girl and Invisible Touch.

Revisions, revisions, translates to me as layers, layers.

I have never been able to focus on several elements of storytelling at once. So as I write my draft I’ll put down my first layer, which is usually action and some personality. Then I’ll add the second layer, description and setting. Then I’ll add a nice coat of tightening and emotion.

Same with revisions… If I feel something is missing, it will of course be another layer. I may scrape down a layer or two already written and reshape the layer once I get to know the character better and get a handle on her voice. Writing a new book is always about finding your voice. Once you get comfortable with that voice and know it inside and out, the revision comes a lot easier. Because your characters are suddenly your best friends and you just know what they’ll say and do. Just. Like. That.

So what did we learn today? Revision comes in layers, and there may be a hundred caked on before you’re through, and then once you know your voice, layers–er, I mean–revision comes a lot easier.

Mmm, layers…. Reminds me of cake. And this:

But I digress. Thinking of revisions as adding layers makes so much sense! Thanks, Kelly, for sharing this great tip! Drop by any time and I’ll share some cake with you in return.